Two related links I don’t wish to title

They are both about economic growth. One is here and the story involves a sari and the Taj Mahal.

The other is here, from Taiwan ("China fact of the day"?), and the markets in everything version as well. Excerpt:

The reasonably priced food includes curries, pasta, fried chicken and
Mongolian hot pot, as well as elaborate shaved-ice desserts with names
like "diarrhea with dried droppings" (chocolate), "bloody poop"
(strawberry) and "green dysentery" (kiwi). Despite the disturbing
descriptions, the desserts were great. But after seeing curry drip down
a mini-toilet, I may never have that sauce again.

Do read the whole thing, but the bottom line is this:

Every customer sits on a stylish acrylic toilet (lid down) designed
with images of roses, seashells or Renaissance paintings. Everyone
dines at a glass table with a sink underneath. The servers bring your
meal atop a mini toilet bowl (quite convenient, as it brings the food
closer to your mouth), you sip drinks from your own plastic urinal (a
souvenir), and soft-swirl ice cream arrives for dessert atop a dish
shaped like a squat toilet.

Having spent July & August in India, let me remark that many localities are tackling this problem. As you drive through the villages of Karnataka, for example, you will see health warnings about the issue illustrated on the walls of the village buildings, in text and pictures for the illiterate. These notices usually have the UN symbol attached, so I believe the UN is funding a public health awareness initiative.

In deeply rural India, we were often invited into the homes of the people – I wore sari all the time – because they have a strong culture of hospitality. Indians are a beautiful, warm, industrious people and if they had even a semi-decent government to aid their coordination efforts they would be Canada in a generation.

We took tea in some houses – beautiful old houses with colorfully painted wooden or concrete pillars – even people who had almost nothing would insist on offering tea – and even though we knew about the water, because it had been boiled, we felt fairly safe and was never sick.

However I must confess that I did see many many tiny children who were obviously ill esp. as I moved into Tamil Nadu. We have beautiful pictures of bathers, but the water in which they are bathing! Oh my.

When Mrs. Ghandi went to Moscow, Khrushchev took her for a tour of the city in his limo. Recalling his visit to India, he started giving her a hard time about the sanitary conditions there.
“When I was in Delhi, I saw human excrement lying everywhere.”
Poor Mrs. Ghandi was terribly embarrassed, but only for a moment, because just ahead was a man sitting on his heels, shitting on the side of the road. She pointed this out.
Khrushchev was livid and didn’t hesitate: “Driver, get out immediately and shoot that man!”
The driver got out, walked up to the man with his gun drawn, spoke briefly, and then returned to the car.
“Sir, I can’t shoot that man… he’s the Indian ambassador.”